Putin says discussed fight against Islamic State with Obama

Washington has demanded that Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad step down, but Putin’s rival alliance with Shiite-led states will instead shore up the beleaguered government in Damascus.

“Russia%2C+Iran+on+Syria%2C+Obama+Tells+UN” Obama said that the USA has readiness to work with any nation, including Russian Federation and Iran, to resolve the crisis.

In a speech at times defensive and accusatory, Obama sought to use his favored weapon – oratory – to beat back his global challengers as well as conservatives in the United States who’ve branded him a weak leader presiding over a legacy of declining power overseas.

The two leaders began meeting shortly after 5 p.m.

“It appears that President Putin is convinced that his position would benefit from a conversation with President Obama“, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday. They ignored shouted questions on Syria.

In a sign of the stakes, United Nations chief Ban Ki moon said that if Washington and Moscow could make headway over the four-and-a-half-year-old conflict then progress might be possible. As they did so, Putin smiled but Obama, with a piercing look, did not.

Meanwhile, a United States official said Obama and Putin have agreed to discuss a political transition in Syria, but remain at odds about what that would mean for Syrian leader Assad’s future.

French president Francois Hollande backed Mr Obama’s call for Assad to be ousted, saying “nobody can imagine” a political solution in Syria if he is still in power.

Raids against the Islamic State group by the US-led coalition of Western and Arab allies are illegal, he argued, because they were not requested by Syria nor authorized by the UN Security Council.

Obama said IS arose because Assad “slaughtered tens of thousands of his own people”.

“The meeting between the two leaders came amid IS+in+Syria+%E2%80%93+Bloomberg” USA fears that Russian Federation is reportedly building up its military presence in Syria and is preparing for launching unilateral airstrikes against IS.

On the ground, Russian Federation has started putting the pieces together by agreeing with Iraq, Syria and Iran that their officers will work together in Baghdad to share intelligence on IS.

Ostracised by the West over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and support for a separatist insurgency in east Ukraine, Putin also pulled off a major coup by holding talks with US President Barack Obama, their first formal bilateral in two years. “If it happens without consequences in Ukraine, it can happen to any nation here today”. That’s the basis of the sanctions that the United States and our partners impose on Russian Federation.

“[Putin] did very well to object to the expansion of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation into Eastern Europe, Ukraine and to draw attention to the [2014] coup in Ukraine“, Swanson said, welcoming Putin’s address to the UN General Assembly as a “very encouraging presentation”.

The United Nations chief, in unusually hard-hitting words, also urged the world to unite against the “blatant brutality” of extremist groups including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).